Peacekeeping role of Kazakh President distinguished in Slovenia

The authority of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the country as a whole is the key to the success of international mediation of the country, while the role of medium-sized states in such efforts will objectively increase in the future. This was announced by Roman Vassilenko, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, at the 13th annual Bled Strategic Forum held in Slovenia on the topic “Bridging the Divide”.

It is to be recalled that Roman Vassilenko headed the Kazakhstan delegation to Slovenia in order to strengthen their comprehensive cooperation and partnership, with an emphasis on economic diplomacy and global interaction. On the first day of the visit to Slovenia, the Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister met with State Secretary of the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Andrej Logar. The diplomats discussed in detail a wide range of political, economic, cultural and humanitarian interactions, reiterating their mutual commitment to expanding their partnership. The sides noted IT, pharmaceuticals, transport infrastructure, logistics, tourism, rehabilitation medicine, and green technologies as promising areas for cooperation.

On the second day, speaking at the panel session “Mediation in a New Multipolar World – Between Expectations and Reality” R. Vassilenko informed the forum participants about the priorities of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy aimed at cooperation and development of multilateral diplomacy, as well as a peaceful and, preferably, preventive settlement of conflicts.

In this regard, it was noted that since gaining independence Kazakhstan has contributed significantly to strengthening international security, as well as resolving crisis situations through peaceful negotiations by political and diplomatic means.

The Kazakh diplomat stressed that Astana advocates a peaceful settlement in conflict zones in accordance with the norms of international law with the adoption of existing international mechanisms. The chairmanship of our country in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as well as the support of the world community of the initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to convene the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), has become a high recognition of the role of Kazakhstan as a regional mediator in the modern world.

“His personal convictions and position lie at the heart of the peacemaking measures of our President. Thanks to his efforts, tension in relations between different countries is reduced”, R. Vassilenko stated.

In many respects due to the personal mediation efforts of President N. Nazarbayev, the relations between the leaders of Russia and Turkey were normalized in 2016 and from the beginning of 2017 the Astana process on Syria was launched.

In this regard, the forum participants were interested in the progress of the Astana process. The Kazakh diplomat informed that the main achievement of the ten rounds of negotiations that have taken place to date is the creation of a tripartite mechanism for monitoring the ceasefire regime, de-escalation zones in Syria, as well as a working group for the exchange of detainees, the transfer of bodies of the deceased and the search for missing persons.

By the way, recently New York city has hosted the meeting of the UN Security Council on Syria, where Kazakhstan took a stand in favor of the settlement of the intra-Syrian conflict by peaceful means. Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations Kairat Umarov noted that the world community should direct joint efforts to create conditions for the settlement of the intra-Syrian conflict exclusively by peaceful means, to restore the war-ravaged country and to resolve the complex humanitarian situation.

Broadly speaking about international relations in Central Asia, Roman Vassilenko noted that Kazakhstan stands for the development of constructive relations between all the actors in the region.

Finally, the meeting demonstrated the great interest of all the states represented on it to the interregional interaction and the continuation of the active dialogue in the proposed format, to the enhancement of cooperation with Kazakhstan.

Within the forum R. Vassilenko held bilateral meetings with Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) H. Schmid, colleagues from a number of European and Asian countries. The head of the EEAS and the Kazakh diplomat discussed the issues of further strengthening of all-round cooperation within the framework of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Kazakhstan and the EU, including the prospects for facilitating the visa regime between Kazakhstan and the EU, as well as the development of a new EU strategy for relations with Central Asia.

For reference: The Bled Strategic Forum (BSF) was established in 2006 to attract leaders from various fields in order to discuss current issues in the field of politics, security and economic development in South-Eastern and Central Europe, and to find new ways to address them. Over 1,200 guests from 70 countries – senior officials of states and international organizations, foreign ministers, politicians, experts, media representatives, have taken part in the main international foreign policy event organized by the Slovenian government this year.

The organizer of the BSF is the Government of Slovenia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia on the one hand and the Center for European Perspectives on the other. The organizers noted that the Bled Strategic Forum is one of the platforms for generating ideas for the formation of a fair and democratic world order.

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